Hot or Cold Maze

What it is

A procedurally generated maze game on Arduino with a twist of a heating/cooling gaming wristband. It is played on a limited 2x16 display to encourage users to rely on temperature sensing from the heating/cooling gaming wristband.

Inspiration

I saw thermoelectric cells being used as generators powered by campfire and after researching them I learned they can be used in reverse to create temperature changes using electricity. I wanted to used them to create an immersive VR experience but due to limitations of a solo hack I decided to prototype a heating/cooling wristband and worry about VR later. I created an Android maze game that used the heating/cooling wristband.

How the gaming wristband works

A thermoelectric cell is set up with an H bridge so current can be run bidirectionally. One direction for heat generation and the other for heat absorption (aka cooling).

Challenges I ran into

Implementing a maze generation algorithm that ran Arduino's memory limitations. I had to scrap a implementation of Randomized Kruskal's algorithm implementation for a lighter Randomized Prim's algorithm implementation.

What I learned

1kybte of heap and 2kybte of stack requires a different coding mindset for certain algorithm solutions.

What's next for Hot or Cold Maze

Hooking up the heating/cooling wristband to a VR game.

Built With

• arduino
• thermoeletric-cell